The Joseph Hageman Memorial Nursing Scholarships

Requirements

Application deadline is the first Friday in April each year by 5 p.m. at the CarolinaEast Foundation office located at 2007 B Neuse Blvd., New Bern, NC 28560. If mailing, please allow sufficient time to be received by this date.

Scholarship applicants must be from Craven, Carteret, Jones, Onslow or Pamlico counties.

Be enrolled as a full-time student in an accredited college or university pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing or a Bachelor of Science program with a major in nursing, or an Associate of Applied Science in nursing with a GPA of 3.0 when accepted for the Nursing degree program. Scholarships will be awarded for one academic year.

Financial need is not a requirement for the receipt of this scholarship.

Scholarship recipients must attend the Nursing Appreciation Dinner, typically held the Wednesday before Memorial Day, in their honor to receive the scholarship.

Awards

Twelve scholarships were awarded in 2018:

Three scholarships for those pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing or the Bachelor of Science program with a major in Nursing in the amount of $5,000.

Five scholarships for those pursuing an Associate of Applied Science degree in Nursing are also available in the amount of $3,000.

Four scholarships for those pursuing an advanced degree in nursing in the amount of $3,000 (CarolinaEast Health System employees).

About Joseph Hageman

The Joseph Hageman Memorial Scholarship is in honor of a man who made it his personal mission to "live strong." He was many things to many people. This scholarship is symbolic of the dedication he had for his family, his colleagues and his former patients.

Joe was an exemplary nurse. In 1974, he became the first male graduate of New Jersey's Trenton State University Nursing program. He went on to become a vital part of every hospital in which he worked. His time as an Emergency Room Nurse yielded lots of exciting tales that became part of his repertoire of stories shared with family and friends.

Joe moved to New Bern, North Carolina in 1978. He was employed then as Manager of the Craven Regional Medical Center (CRMC) Emergency Room. Twenty years later, people would stop him and tell how they remembered the care he gave their loved ones in the ER. His way with people was truly unforgettable.

He went on to become an original employee of the New Bern Surgery Center as their Nurse Manager and remained so until 2000. He was then promoted to Director of Surgical Services which increased his duties to include the hospital Operating Room, Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), and Central Sterile Supply. He also oversaw the design and construction of the new state-of-the-art Craven Surgery Center that today assists hundreds of people in this area. In 2002, he was promoted to Executive Director of Surgical Services. Just one year later he celebrated 25 years of employment with CRMC.

Joe is remembered by his peers as an honest, extremely capable and humorous co-worker who made work FUN. People trusted him with their personal problems, frequently used him as a counselor, a personal travel planner and a source of information on almost any subject.

However, Joe's "live strong" philosophy meant that he was more than a wonderful Nurse and Administrator. He was also an amazing father, husband and son. He was his family's personal hero. In his daughters' minds, he could do anything—climb tall mountains (which he often did), rescue people in distress (he did that quite often too), and build anything he wanted to construct from birdhouses to catwalks. Joe and Claire, his beloved wife, traveled the United States from one end to the other. They journeyed across oceans and seas via sailboat. They danced together under the stars and slept under them as often, while they camped, canoed and hiked most of the winding trails on this continent. Joe was a proud son and caregiver to his parents. His mother June bravely battled cancer for fifteen years until she passed away in 2005. It was her experience with cancer that led to Joe's adoption of Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG philosophy.